Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)

Raffles Girls' School (RGS) is an independent all-girls secondary school in Singapore.[5]

Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
莱佛士女子中学
Sekolah Perempuan Raffles (Menengah)
இராஃபிள்ஸ் பெண்கள் பள்ளி (உயர்நிலை)
Address
2 Braddell Rise

Singapore
318871[1]

Singapore
Coordinates
Information
TypeIndependent
MottoFiliae Melioris Aevi[2]
(Daughters of a Better Age)
Established1879 (1879)[2]
Sister schoolRaffles Institution
SessionSingle; AM
School code3008
ChairmanHon Justice Judith E J Prakash[3]
PrincipalHaslinda Zamani
GenderFemale
EnrolmentApprox. 1600[4]
Colour(s)    Green, black, & white
Websitewww.rgs.edu.sg

Established in 1879, the school is one of the oldest in Singapore.

Its educational and co-curricular excellence have made it one of the premier secondary schools in Singapore. It provides students with a 6-year Raffles Program[6] which cumulates in the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate in Education (GCE) 'Advanced' Level Examination.

The school was recognised by the Ministry of Education in 2006 by being awarded the School Excellence Award (recognising schools with 'exemplary school processes and practices'), among other awards.[7]

It was a member of Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia.[8]

History

Before RGS became a school in its own right, it existed as a part of Raffles Institution (RI).[9]

The department for girls was opened in the RI campus of Bras Basah Road on 4 March 1844 with 11 students, 5-day-scholars and six boarders, who were clothed, fed and instructed by the institution itself. The demand for education grew and in 1847, the school moved to RI's eastern wing, extending towards Bras Basah Road. Governor of the Straits Settlement, E.A. Blundell described RGS as "a female school designed for the education and religious training of the children of poor Protestant parents" in 1855.[10] In 1871, the school moved into a house, the George Family's Old Mansion at the corner of Bras Basah Road. In 1879, the school separated from RI and Miss Nelson was appointed the school's first headmistress. Together with three assistants, she ran the school which had an enrolment of 77. Since then, 1879 has been officially regarded as the year of the founding of RGS.[11]

On 21 October 2019, it moved from Anderson Road, where it has been located since 1959, to its new campus at Braddell Rise, located opposite Raffles Institution.[4]

School culture and identity

Uniform
Semi-formal RGS uniform with school tie
Formal school attire

The usual school uniform is a belted, deep blue pinafore and a white collared blouse.[12] Students customarily fold their sleeves on most shirts (except Physical Education Shirt), which also requires a colour-coded nametag (colours Black/Green (green as of 2019)) Blue, Red and Yellow inherited by first-year batch to graduating batch respectively), along with the school badge, on the top left of the uniform, right below the name tag. There are also school culottes, worn with the PE shirt.

Awards and accolades

A group of four students from Raffles Girls' School emerged Champion at the Kids' Lit Quiz 2018, and represented Singapore in New Zealand in July that year.[13]

Mr Joseph Toh Kim Leng won the Teaching Award in 2016, which honours outstanding teachers of English language, English literature and General Paper in Singapore.[14]

Jodie Lai, a 2015 Optimist World Championships Under-15 champion, was conferred the title of Best Sportsgirl for sailing at the 46th Singapore Schools Sports Council (SSSC) Colours Awards in 2016.[15]

Veronica Shen won the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition in the Junior Category in 2019 with her poem entitled 'Lost'.[16][17]

Notable alumnae
See also: Raffles Institution (Secondary) § Notable alumni, and Raffles Institution (Junior College) § Notable alumni

References
  1. "Site directory".
  2. "Vision Mission Values". www.rgs.edu.sg.
  3. "Board of Governors". www.rgs.edu.sg.
  4. hermes (22 October 2019). "Raffles Girls' School moves to new home, across from RI". The Straits Times. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  5. "School Information Service (SIS)". sis.moe.gov.sg. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  6. "Historical Milestones". www.rgs.edu.sg.
  7. "SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2006" (PDF). Ministry of Education. 19 September 2006. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  8. "Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)". Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia. 19 July 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  9. "A CENTURY OF EDUCATION IN SINGAPORE". The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. 8 October 1935.
  10. Chandy, Gloria (17 March 1980). "Rise and rough times of RGS". New Nation.
  11. Zhu, Melissa (20 October 2016). "New RGS campus expected to be ready earliest 2019". Channel NewsAsia.
  12. "A-Z guide to the top school". (20 August 1994). Straits Times.
  13. "Raffles Girls' School tops literature quiz and will represent Singapore in global round". The Straits Times. The Straits Times. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  14. "Well versed in the art of teaching English". The Straits Times. The Straits Times. 14 October 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  15. "School sports: Over 8,000 student-athletes recognised at annual SSSC Colours Awards". The Straits Times. The Straits Times. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  16. "Singapore High Commission in London and Embassy to Ireland and Iceland". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  17. "2019 essay world finalists". The Royal Commonwealth Society Canterbury (NZ) Branch Incorporated. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  18. "Amy Khor's profile on the Singapore Parliament website". Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  19. "Ang Swee Chai /Singapore Women's Hall of Fame". Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. 3 March 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  20. "SingTel Organisation Chart". Archived from the original on 23 September 2014.
  21. "30 Under 30 Asia 2018: The Arts". Forbes. Retrieved 8 April 2018.


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